KIDNEY ACTION DAY KICKS OFF IN JUNE

The American Kidney Fund’s Kidney Action Day will be held on June 6, 2017 to help raise awareness about kidney disease in Chicago’s minority communities. Michael Spigler, Vice President of Patient Services and Kidney Disease Education for The American Kidney Fund said one of the reasons why kidney disease is very high in the African American community is because of a lack of healthy and quality food choices.
The American Kidney Fund’s Kidney Action Day will be held on June 6, 2017 to help raise awareness about kidney disease in Chicago’s minority communities. Michael Spigler, Vice President of Patient Services and Kidney Disease Education for The American Kidney Fund said one of the reasons why kidney disease is very high in the African American community is because of a lack of healthy and quality food choices.

KIDNEY ACTION DAY KICKS OFF IN JUNE

By Christopher Shuttlesworth

More than 31 million Americans have kidney disease, but

most don’t know it because the disease referred to as the “silent killer” shows no symptoms until it reaches it la te stages, said Michael Spigler, Vice President of Patient

Services and Kidney Disease Education for The American Kidney Fund.

Spiller said many Chicagoans, especially African Americans, are at risk for kidney disease and says diabetes continues

to be the leading cause for the vast majority of kidney failure cases with high blood pressure as the second leading cause.

Spigler said one of the reasons why kidney disease

is very high in the African American community is because of

a lack of health y and quality food choices in the Black community.

The American Kidney Fund reported that “other risk factors

include having a family history of kidney disease and being over 60 years old.”

Chicago Police Department’s Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who is planning to undergo Kidney-transplant surgery, is also committed to working with T he American Kidney Fund, which is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization that currently works on behalf of Americans with

Kidney disease. The organization will host The American Kidney Fund’s Kidney Action Day on June 6, 2017 when Johnson and the American Kidney Fund will help raise awareness about kidney disease in Chicago’s minority

communities.

“Unlike like colon cancer or breast cancer, there is not really a set protocol on when people should get tested for kidney disease,” Spigler said. “What a doctor would usually do is look at what your risk factors are. So, having high blood pressure, diabetes or having a family member that has kidney failure or kidney disease will put you at higher risk. Those over 60 years old are at more risk, but those are just the

statistics. It is not a hard, fast guide-line to say that is when you should s tart being tested.”

Spigler recommended that patients make regular doctor’s visits and ask for updates from their doctors about their health when they see their physicians.

“What you want to try and do is keep diabetes and high blood pressure at bay, he said. “Also, not smoking and exercising 30 minutes for most days of the week, eating a healthy diet with fruits and vegetables, limiting alcohol usage. But the most important thing is seeing a doc tor regularly and making sure when you’re having your blood drawn, to ask your doc tor ‘how are my kidneys doing?’ “

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